SYLLABARY OF CHINESE SOUNDS. AIS 
Note 2. I have comprised under one category what I call ‘‘the six difficult sounds,” 
viz, chi, shi, jt, sst, tz, and ir. By the symbol ¢, which I have borrowed from Edkins, 
I wish to indicate the simultaneous intonation of a vowel, no matter which, with the 
adjoining sonant (ch, sh, 7, ss, ¢z, or 7). Ihave, at a meeting of the Far-Eastern Section 
of the XII International Congress of Orientalists, held at Rome October roth, 1899, ex- 
plained the reasons which have led me to use a uniform symbol for the vocalic elements 
of these six sounds, which appear as chih, shih, jih, ssi, tzu and érh respectively, in Wade’s, 
and as ché or chih, shi, sh’ or shih, jeh, sz,tsz, and’rh in Williams’ orthography. On refer- 
ring to the old Chinese sound description quoted in K’ang-hi’s Dictionary, it will be found 
that syllables are there explained by the so-called ‘‘cutting sound’’ method (¢s’zé-yz7). 
It consists of two characters, of which the first indicates the initial, the second, the final 
together with the vocalic content of the sound to be described. Since the six syllables 
referred to have, in the modern Mandarin dialects, no consonant as a final, the second 
character of their ‘‘cutting sound” represents merely their vocalic content pure and 
simple. And with regard to this vocalic content, uniformity may be shown to have been 
assumed by Chinese sound investigators in cases which in former systems are described 
by very different symbols. A few examples will illustrate this: 
Wade spells +. chih, K’ang-hi’s analysis has Ry a *ch(i-sh)t' = chi 
— 
in r' + SStb i. “f e 4. a S(tang-sh)t = sst 
ce “c {8 érh, “6 a «c 47) a rj(éng-sh)i = ri, or ir 
» 
It will be seen that in these three cases the Chinese express the final, or vocalic ele- 
ment in a uniform manner by shi,* whereas Wade expresses it in three different ways 
by 22, #@ and é. Furher 
Wade spells 45 shih, K’ang-hi’'s analysis has ak sh(du-ch)é = shi 
trh “6 “6 “ as ak rj (én-ch)i — ey or ir 
shth “e “e sé ap Ze sh(t-ch)t = sht. 
érh “c “é “6 Ay me rj(6n-ch)i = ree or “rT. 
teil ce 6c 6“ iF Z_ ts(¢n-ch)i= tst, or ¢22. 
A iP) ch(én-r)i'= chi. 
chih “6 “6 “ec Sa BE) ch (é-77) = cht. 
A f J(6n-ch)t = Ji. 
* The character for li, ‘‘an officer,’”’ read shi ad hoc (Fp S +9 ~ ik , K’ang-ht). 
chih “cc “é 
pa VY eH HK 
jth oe “e 
